Category: Philosophy

A Little Bit on Anecdotes

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I came across a plea today on Facebook, asking for people to send to a particular individual stories about the negative impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), colloquially called “Obamacare,” for the president who signed it into law.  I pointed out that anecdotes are not good evidence, and I had objections to their use as such, since I feel it is emotionally manipulative and therefore not totally truthful.  I was met by a lot of opinions counter to my own. The arguments were fairly varied, there were some ad hominem attacks, but most seemed to take my use of…

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More Words That Emanate From the Hindquarters of Male (Genetically Modified) Cattle

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1. GMO/Monsanto/etc.  Let’s be honest, most people who post on Facebook about Monsanto (you know who you are) have no flipping clue what they are talking about; they’ve never set foot on a farm and have no concept of how the food industry works. They have probably never seen a live domesticated chicken (hint: was it white?), or have no idea what the fertilization process of corn is. Unless you eat exclusively wild game, all the food you eat is genetically modified.  ALL OF IT.  Cows didn’t just evolve into oversized meat-bags producing an excess of milk.  Those phenotypes were carefully…

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The Heartbeat of the Emperor

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Twelve years and thousands of lives later, the war drums of the empire beat no more softly than they did when shifting face of the oligarchy was turned upon its own wounds.  It is the heartbeat of the emperor: vain, ceaseless, changeless, and unwilling to go gently into the night and allow men to be free.  The noble, gods unto themselves, play games with the lives of lesser men, with pride their only prize.  Honor and glory call the freemen to bind themselves and give their sword to those who would be kings.  The thrall tend the fields, fighting for…

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Political Philosophy 2: Rights and Responsibilities, pt. 1

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I. Introduction                Moving beyond the basic nature of human beings is the extension of rights that we ascribe to them, and the nature of those rights depends greatly on or view of the relationship of one man to another, and in a larger sense, one man to all men (or man to society).  As an American, the sensibility of rights is something that is nearly bred into us, a persistent word found in countless messages about our country, our history, and our neighbors that we have heard since birth.  Despite the prevalence of the word, the concepts that back…

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Political Philosophy 1: Human Nature

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               At the heart of every philosophy is a set of assumptions or conclusions on the nature of human beings and what guides their thoughts and behaviors.  It is perhaps too simplistic to dichotomize views on human nature, but as part of my own general view on humanity I understand that we understand our world through categorization, so on some level lines must be drawn, even on things which may not have a clear delineation of one position to the next.                Typically, discussions of human nature revolve around whether we are “good” or…

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